“Nothing.” “No.” “Nothing.” “That ain’t nothing.”
Nate Diaz told Conor McGregor for 25 minutes that his punches, elbows, knees and leg strikes were nothing to him. Seeing a man still standing, and still talking trash, after heaving everything you had into him must have been disheartening. After he had beat Diaz by decision, McGregor admitted Diaz’s toughness had planted a seed of doubt:
“I knew I was up against and I was thinking, maybe this could be a mistake, but I said f**k it.”
McGregor put in a noticeably restrained, measured performance. Well used to talking trash throughout his fights, he saved his breath for the most part.
There were a couple of ‘got you’ barbs and some expletives picked up my microphones but McGregor was keeping his powder dry.
On three occasions, McGregor told the Californian to get back to his feet after toppling him.
The only time he was goaded into a rash move was when, goaded by Diaz into a poorly executed wheel-kick in the third round that saw him pushed back and in trouble against the fence.
Post-fight, Diaz revealed some of the back-and-forths between the fighters:
“A couple of times I felt he was done, you know, and I didn’t finish it off. Then he’d make a little remark and I was like ‘Man!’ At the end, though, you’ve got to respect someone that can tough it out to the end of the fight.”
“He didn’t have too much to say this time,” Diaz added.
“It was funny to me so I was telling him, ‘I don’t hear too much this time’ and ‘Whoop, whoop’. I was just talking to him. A bunch of stuff as I settled in. It’s hard to not say something sometimes but I was just saying some shit.”
As the final buzzer sounded, Diaz reached down to offer McGregor his hand.
“Great f**king fight, fair play,” McGregor exclaimed as he rose to his feet.
The Notorious was not surprised by the gracious action by Diaz:
“He’s a class competitor. It’s intense in the build-up and everything is real. If my team saw his team in the build-up, something is going down and that’s the way it is.
“But respect is earned through battle. That’s the way it is for me and for them.”
The battle was won but we suspect the war will continue.
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